Thursday, June 2, 2011

I was under the impression that my leadership courses would be coming on July 24th, but it seems that I was due for an earlier lesson than I had expected.

Now this course wasn't formal or anything, it wasn't taught in a classroom by a man who had majored in philosophy or leadership and all that jazz. Instead it was merely a serious in depth conversation between my mom, my dad, and myself.

Our whole conversation precipitated from events that unfolded during our Ivy League Connection Orientation tonight. At our orientation certain traits were revealed by various members of the ILC, including both students and administrators. At our orientation tonight, key information was to be delivered to each and every one of the ILC cohorts and their respective parents. This information included things such as travel plans, what to pack, when we're leaving, and basically what we, as the students, must give back to the program itself. Now during the whole course of this exchange of information certain attitudes and actions jumped out to both me and my family, and these are the things that caused my crash course introduction to leadership.

When my family got home and we were all fed, we sat back down at our dinner table and started to discuss what had happened that night. My father immediately started asking me questions, sort of like an interrogation, about what things had popped out to me that night, what I thought about them, etc. I told him that certain actions and attitudes were the most prominent things that I had noticed and a big grin started to form itself upon his face. I could tell that I had hit upon something that he wanted to have a deep analytical discussion with me.

We started to discuss the actions and attitudes, why they were there in the first place, and whether or not they were right. In order to answer why they were there we talked about what kind of stresses go into such a tremendous organization such as the ILC. Before this conversation I had never really taken a good look at all of the logistics that needed to be taken care of. Sure I was in charge of making reservations at Columbia for campus tours and for dinner dates, but that was only one city, for one program. There are several other programs that needed to be attended to, several other dinner dates and campus tours. I had gained a lot of appreciation for all of the hard work, time, and resources that our administrators put into each of us.

After discussing the logistics of it all, my family and I moved onto the key issue of our talk that night. Leadership is a very complex thing, it takes a precise formula to create an effective leader. This formula includes how to inspire your subjects and how to properly maintain control over them, basically how to be a "just leader." The actions and attitudes that brought about the family wide debate, started to be analyzed by us. We took them apart and thought about whether or not a great leader acts like this. My father then paralleled this situation into his own universe. My father was after all a SWAT team leader and he had to face the daunting task of leading individuals into combat. My dad told me all sorts of things that a leader had to think of, basically the formula mentioned earlier, and how that at the core each and every leader now matter what they be the leader of had to adhere to his fundamental formula. We concluded that the actions and attitudes brought up in the night of Orientation had just reasons for them, but also had some flaws.

Yes I had gained the knowledge that was supposed to be given to me on Orientation, what to pack, what to expect, when to leave, but the most important things I gained that night were as a result of my family debate. I had learned to appreciate evermore the efforts that our ILC administrators put into the ILC students. Most importantly however leadership is a complex subject and requires an individual of the highest capabilities in order to master the craft. The attitudes and actions that had surged at Orientation were the direct causation of the debate and consequently, my lessons gained from them.

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About Us

We are a group of rising seniors representing the West Contra Costa Unified School District located in the San Francisco Bay Area. From July 24th through August 7th we will be participating in the rigorous Studies in Grand Strategies course as a part of Yale’s Ivy Scholars Program.

This intense course focuses on writing skills, advocacy, persuasion skills, and leadership. Only a selected group of high school students worldwide get the opportunity to learn from such a diverse and distinguished faculty as this program has to offer.

To quote from Yale’s designated website for this program: “This special academic and leadership development program is for extraordinarily capable individuals of strong character who know who they are, possess a strong desire to study strategy and leadership, and have a calling to someday serve at the very highest levels of government, business, public service, and education.”

Our group consists of three students: Tom Miller from El Cerrito High School, Matthew Lee from Pinole Valley High School, and Wing Tung (Dyana) So, also from Pinole Valley High.

Our Connections

MATTHEW LEE

Matt is a junior attending Pinole Valley High. During his free time, Matt likes to play video games, play intense matches of tennis and, hang out with his friends. All of these things help him through the rigorous stress of academics. Matt's future is still unclear, but he knows college will be a definite first step.

TOM MILLER

Tom Miller lives in Kensington, California, and is a Junior at El Cerrito High School. He does not know what career lies ahead of him, but he has a passion for politics, theater, and working with children. In his spare time he enjoys performing and directing youth plays and musicals, mountain biking, and yoga.

DYANA SO

As an active junior around Pinole Valley High School, Dyana So takes part in many extracurriculars - from being secretary to the Forensics Speech and Debate Team to being Editor-in-Chief of the Literary Magazine. She has a passion to learn and a passion to lead. Dyana also likes to draw, travel, and sing.